Global firms snap up IIM-B school grads

Bangalore, March 10 (IANS) Leading global consulting firms, investment banks and marketing companies made a beeline to the Indian Institute of Management-Bangalore (IIM-B) to hire the entire outgoing batch of post-graduate management students, wooing the best among them with high pay packets. Of the 260 graduates, 256 appeared for the placement, while four opted out to become entrepreneurs in the choice of their field. About 120 global and Indian firms flocked to the B-school for snapping up the brightest.

As a policy, the management did not disclose the compensation offered or the range in which it was fixed. But there was a significant increase in the average domestic salary compared to the last year.

“Since last year, we have decided not to reveal the package offered, who got what and how. If compensation figures are mentioned by other IIMs, it is their choice. Here, we are not aware which company has offered what pay packet and to whom,” IIM-B faculty member (placement) Sourav Mukherjee told reporters Monday at the campus.

On the very first day of the placement drive (March 4), the entire batch was placed, with about 50 percent of them (133) getting lucrative offers from slot zero firms, making the entire process the fastest ever placement in the school.

The total number of slot zero offers increased to 32 and IIM-B students were recruited for diverse profiles and geographies.

Interestingly, only 25 percent of the students opted for overseas locations, while the remaining 75 percent preferred to work in India. Location on offer were London, New York, Boston, Shanghai, Bangkok, Hong Kong, Florida, Dubai, Amsterdam, Sydney and Melbourne.

Undeterred by concerns of global recession and fallout of the sub-prime crisis in the US, a high number of investment banks came calling this time to offer postings in India and overseas to the reputed B-school.

Among major recruiters were McKinsey & Co with 15 offers, followed by Lehman Brothers and Boston Consulting Group 11 each; Deutsche Bank with seven, Bain & Co, AT Kerney and Merrill Lynch with six each; Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanely with five each; Oliver Wyman, Barclays Capital and ABN AMRO four each and Citigroup three.

“Around 37 percent of the total students (95) opted for a consulting career, which is the highest across all IIMs this year. Arthur D. Little, Al Ghanim, Accenture, KPMG and Diamond Consulting were the other global consulting recruiters,” Mukherjee said after the final placement process concluded Saturday.

Sectors such as real estate, media/entertainment and lifestyle have also opened up for attractive placements in response to student preferences.

London-based real estate Blackstone group recruited a student - the only selection it has made in Asia.

“The increasing number of global recruiters bears a strong testimony to the maturing global reputation of IIM-B. In spite of recessionary fears in the US and a resultant slowdown in the global economy, we have not seen such concerns impacting hiring our graduates.

“We are in the business of preparing management students in India. We all understand the business cycles. Sometimes it favours and other times it goes down. Being a stronger institute, we are better placed to handle the downturn,” IIM-B director Pankaj Chandra said.

Among Indian firms, ICICI offered positions in its London and Singapore operations. UAE Exchange from Middle East selected in slot one.